Highway 60 Flooding Causing Disruptions, Frustrations

04/04/2014 06:23 PM

04/04/2014 06:33 PM

A 1.5 mile stretch of the highway is closed because of flooding.

April showers are bringing more than May flowers, they've brought flooding. One of the busiest highways in the Tri-State has been hard hit. A stretch of U.S. 60 is still closed at the Henderson-Union County line, forcing drivers to take the long way home. This isn't the first time it's happened.

Residents and Kentucky transportation officials say that part of U.S. 60 floods nearly once a year. There are ways to fix it, but it won't be happening soon.

"It's important for, not for me, but for a lot of people around here," says Tim Peak of Union County. He drives Highway 60 nearly every day.

"Going to Evansville once a day, that's the quickest way of course," Peak says.

But when the road flooded, he had to take the long way.

"We had to take the back roads, because it's closed there," he says. "Went through Smith Hills, Geneva."

The mile-and-a-quarter section flooded overnight. Many say the flooding of this part of sixty is nearly a yearly occurrence that drives them crazy.

"You have to get up earlier," Peak says. "It's more hassle."

"I talked to one lady on the other end, she lives on the Henderson side. She works at the Walmart in Morganfield. She was going to be a half hour late for work," says Keith Todd of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet. "Then she was going to spend another gallon or so of gas to go around the detour."

Todd says there are plans to rebuild and elevate the section. But the project is expected to cost millions of dollars.

"If we raise the elevation here, then we have to go down another section several hundred yards down, there's a section water gets over," he says. "Then there's another section. It's not just that one short section we have to raise, it's almost the entire mile and a quarter."

The waters will go down soon, but residents like peak don't want to see them rise again.

"Don't stay closed long, but I hate it when it is closed," Peak adds.

Transportation officials say sixty will re-open sometime this weekend. But they're unsure when exactly U.S. 60 will clear up.

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